A new facility is opening next week in Baton Rouge dedicated to helping pregnant and postpartum women with mental health needs.
Tuesday, Woman’s Hospital in Baton Rouge took the wraps off its new Perinatal Mental Health Unit.
“We will take care of expecting moms and postpartum moms up to one year postpartum who have mental health needs that require inpatient care,” says Cheri Johnson, chief nursing officer at Woman’s Hospital.
Johnson notes that health is a significant concern among pregnant and postpartum women.
“Twenty-percent of women experience some type of perinatal mood and anxiety disorder, along with depression,” Johnson says.
According to statistics, three-fourths of those women go untreated.
Johnson says patients will not be sharing any rooms with other patients.
“We have single private rooms for our moms so we can really do some protected sleep,” says Johnson.
Units like these are very few and far between.
“There’s just a few in the country, like three, and we’re the first in Louisiana,” says Johnson.
Gov. Landry was among the dignitaries attending Tuesday morning’s ribbon cutting ceremony.
The unit will welcome its first patients from throughout Louisiana on Tuesday, September 3rd.
